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Got Tax Relief? Not In Houston…

So you think you’re getting tax relief? If you live in Houston, chances are you are not. The school district there are doing everything they can to reach into your family’s pocket-book and exact every last dollar they can.Houston ISD and Cypress-Fairbanks ISD are...

Property Tax Appraisals Skyrocket from Metroplex to Killeen

In Dallas County, total property values are up 16 percent, with about half of that attributable to increases on existing properties, according to a Dallas Morning News report. Although Collin County has not posted 2007 average home values yet, the Dallas Morning News...

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Small Businesses Bracing for Burdensome Business Tax

The San Antonio Express-News reports that many small business owners around the state are facing huge bills due under the new state gross receipts tax which starts in 2007, with the first payment to the state due by May 2008. The article notes that many firms are...

What Wine Goes Best With Pork-Fat?

The Texas Department of Agriculture will this Sunday serve up a heain' helpin' of taxpayer dollars as the chief sponsor of an artsy "wine dinner" in Austin. Were you invited? Me, either... The event benefits the Texas Wine & Food Foundation, an Austin non-profit...

Dallas Shopping Centers Ring Up Lawsuit Against Apprisal District

According to a Dallas Business Journal article , the owners of several Dallas-area shopping centers, including Highland Park Village and Preston Trail Plaza, are suing the Dallas Central Appraisal District and the Dallas Appraisal Review Board, saying the method the...

Too Much Dust, Not Enough Results

Besides just bad philosophy, one of the worst contributors to government growth is our misplaced emphasis on defining success by activity. When you stand on the plains and look to the horizon, a great cloud of dust can be either an army purposefully on the move, or a...

Texas Hotel Taxes Enough to Make You Lose Sleep

Found this revealing tidbit on the Austin American-Statesman's entertainment pages: Those hotel occupancy taxes in Texas’ big cities are so high they’ll give you a nosebleed. Example: My $279 stay at the lovely Granduca Hotel in Houston a few days ago...

More Taxes, Courtesy of Republican Fred Hill

There was once a time when Republicans were known as the tax-cutters; people who – if nothing else – would work to make sure the taxpayers’ money stayed in the taxpayers’ wallet (as State Rep. Rob Eissler likes to say). That was then, this is now. State Rep....